Dutch Society of Botanical Artists

Syringa vulgaris, Anita Walsmit Sachs

This is the website of the Dutch Society of Botanical Artists. Here you can find information on the history of the society, membership, exhibitions, and upcoming events. You can also enjoy our members artwork.

Anita Walsmit Sachs saw a decrease in the number of professional botanical artists when she was head of the art department at the Herbarium of Leiden University and feared for the continuity of this profession. She started offering courses in botanical drawing and watercolour at the Herbarium in Leiden in 1996. These courses were very well received, with participation of enthusiastic professional and non-professional artists alike from all over the country.

The Dutch Society of Botanical Artists was founded at the 12th of April 2006 by a small number of people with a keen interest in botanical drawing and watercolour. Much progress has been achieved since then and many initiatives have been undertaken to realise our goals:

provide information about botanical art and make this beautiful profession known to a wide public;

bring together botanical artists, illustrators and

anyone interested in botanical art and improve the quality of botanical art in the Netherlands.

Acanthus, Jacomien van Andel

Examples of our activities are organising exhibitions, lectures and workshops, in addition to our newsletter and this website. Articles about the Society or about individual artists appear regularly in magazines. More information on these subjects can be found in the sections ‘Exhibitions’ and ‘Courses’.

The Society aims for high quality botanical drawing and painting, and facilitates this by offering a wide range of courses, from beginners-level to master classes. Besides the courses, much attention is given to the improvement of members work-in-progress by the organisation of work discussions for specific projects. The Society organises a yearly course with well-known instructor from abroad, like Valery Oxley (2009), Anne-Marie Evans (2010, 2012 and 2016), Elaine Searle (2011), Jennifer Philips (2013) and Helen Allen (2014 and 2016), teachers from England and Australia.